Once in a lifetime
by Daant23
Summary: A Machiavellian legal guardian, a lost family, two unlikely friends, paranormal dealings, incredible power, a suspicious government, and an unsuspecting town. But those things are perhaps, less important than Danny Fenton's search for love, hope, justice, and freedom. Of course, as Clockwork would point out, it's all once in a lifetime that normal life is quite so exciting. AU


"what are you doing here?" he asked.

Sam, slightly unsure of how to respond, just shrugged. "Why do you care? I'm just out on a walk." She hadn't expected to meet really anyone in the marshy woods beyond her house, which she could see a quarter of a mile to the west perched on the embankment overlooking the wilderness. Inwardly, she was slightly frightened; her parents had stressed the hazard of being alone. Would this _boy _be dangerous? She had heard enough stories of girls getting in trouble with strangers. She would fight if that happened, run away or something, she knew the way home, it wasn't far.

But the boy seemed harmless, skinny as a stick, short and boyish, he had to be about her age, thirteen, apparently not having hit a growth spurt yet. In fact, it seemed as though he were the one lost, not her. His clothes seemed ill fitting and dirty, hair was uncut and uncombed in a wild mess, hands caked in mud, and a forlorn, sad look on his face.

"They're chasing me, you should go before they find us" he said worriedly.

"Who?" Sam asked, puzzled. "Your parents?"

"No, my guards…but" he hesitated "I shouldn't say anything. The last person I talked to got arrested for child endangerment"

Sam was now properly frightened, and she turned to run. She didn't bother looked back, she just began to dash as fast as she could away from the stranger, back towards her house. He had to be a felon of some sort, a punk maybe. What was he doing out in the woods? He had to be in trouble with the police for stealing or something and she didn't want to get involved.

Danny watched as the girl ran off, running back towards the tree line. A bout of panic rose up in him, regret and desperate longing to just talk to her, but she had been thoroughly spooked. Beyond the elm trees he could see through the haze of the August heat a subdivision of expensive homes, a world away. He wished that he could just live a normal life, away from the insanity of his own, but…

"Danny!"

He was caught. A rough yank turned him about.

"Got you"

"What do you want Dash?" he said with a scowl. The high school senior looked down at him contemptuously, gripping his arm all too tightly.

"What do you think brat? Your Dad's going to be pissed when we get home."

"I hate him!" Danny was feeling bold, even reckless. "And I hate you almost as much!" he kicked Dash in the shins and bit at the offending hand that was restraining him. The young man yelped and lost his grip as Danny took off, tearing into the thicket.

"Kwan! Get him, he bit me!" Dash whined as he lumbered after Danny, nursing the small wound that Danny had made. Danny spit violently, trying to dispel the taste of copperish blood on his teeth, trying to ignore the instant pain as a bush of thorns tore as his jeans and his arms, and trying to ignore the fact that he was in a no-win situation. A crashing to his left made him notice Kwan deftly running towards him, feet noisy crunching through the layer of dead leaves and rotting logs that littered the forest floor.

He was just a kid. Just a little kid. Why him? Danny felt ready to cry, placing a hand up to his mouth to stifle a whine, as he locked his sight on the small hill approaching directly ahead. Kwan was mere yards behind him, he couldn't stop now. Up the hill, shoes losing traction as he struggled up the slope of clay soil, dirt crumbling around him. Kwan gave a cry as he slid, the incline having defeated his heavier weight. Danny kept running, even though he knew that he didn't have much energy left.

After a heart pounding second, he burst upon the hill top, to a small clearing. Here, at the end of his rope, he put his hands on his knees and caught his breath, coughing up some mucus from the physical exertion. Looking up, he caught a spectacular view; Amity Park in its mid-day summertime glory.

It is during frenzied moments that a person suddenly appreciates simple things, such as a simple gaze upon his or her hometown. Danny looked out over the hill top and over the trees that flanked the hill base, towards the city center. 40,000 people or so, living in the meandering sub-divisions spread out between the highways that ringed the city; small office buildings dotting the downtown, rising from the vast ocean of summer greenery like some sort of Emerald City. Out there was peace, sanity, hope, normality…all he had was…

Dash tackled him clumsily, swearing as the two of them slid into a pile of mud.

"Gotcha!"

Kwan finally managed to clamber up the hill, wincing as Dash smashed a fist into Danny's face.

"Vlad's going to be mad you bruised him"

"Well I'm mad first, look at my jacket!" Dash exclaimed. Kwan shook his head. "You're going to get yourself in real trouble some-day Dash. This time it might get you fired, next time it might get you arrested."

"Fuck you" Dash stomped off. "I hate this job anyway"

"I'm just trying to be your friend Dash. Hey, Danny, you alright?"

"Leave me alone" Danny hadn't made any moves to get up, just lying in the mud, silently sobbing. Kwan gently pulled the small boy to his feet. He was covered in dirt, nose bleeding profusely, black eye forming rapidly and crying openly now. Kwan just sighed. "Come on Danny, let's go home"

"It's not my home. He's not my Dad"

"What can we do about it?"

"I dunno, call the police or something"

Kwan looked down at Danny, feeling guilty. "I think you know that the police won't do anything Danny, and I would be held responsible. Come on, the car's just a half mile from here."

"No! I would rather be dead!"

"Danny, come on let's go" Kwan firmly but gently picked up the lad and slung him over his broad shoulders, ignoring the fists pounding his back. "Coming Dash?"

"Whatever, I'm fired" Dash was sitting on a rock, looking exhausted. "Sorry Danny I…I got a little mad there"

"Screw you!"

"Yeah, screw me. What a screwed up situation anyway. I'll be lucky if Vlad doesn't spill the beans" Dash, in a spat of anger, took off his jacket and threw it as far as he could, watching it disappear into a glade of trees. "Figures" he sighed and swung his legs. Inwardly he felt awful now, now that he had cooled down.

Kwan made his way through the woods, ignoring Danny's loud complaints, descending back into the woods and finally out to the dirt road where Dash's car and his car had been parked hastily, doors still open.

"Wipe yourself up" Kwan handed Danny a handful of napkins to which the smaller boy obliged with a quiet "thanks".

A throbbing headache enveloped his head as Danny wiped the sticky blood from his face, not helped by the hot interior of the 1989 Plymouth Reliant, which smelled of aged plastic and cheap cloth seats. At least Kwan kept the interior clear of clutter, save the ceiling fabric which hung down into the back seat. Dash drove a Ford Escort that was as messy as it was noisy; the muffler had given out years ago. It didn't matter; Danny was back in the clink…or at least the jalopy, heading back home, the most hated place on earth for him.

"So Danny…" Kwan said, trying to ignore the persistent potholes in the dirt road. "Did you prove something?"

Danny said nothing, just sniffing a little and drying his eyes.

"you know, you bring this on yourself. If you just followed the rules and did what your Dad told you to do.."

"He's not my Dad!" Danny shouted. "What do you know, wait, what do you care! Oh I know, you just care about staying out of trouble with him."

"I'm not responding"

"Of course not. You don't have a clue; you just do yard work and run after me. Doing like everyone else does, following leader and let the…the _evil_ continue."

"Vlad's not evil"

"You don't know him. He broke apart my family." Danny pouted. "And he's a big jerk, a big prick"

"He gives you everything you want"

"What I want, but not what I need" Danny said vehemently. "Why am I even talking to you? You don't _really _care. If you really cared, you would call the police or a lawyer or something like that."

Kwan fell silent. Danny didn't know how Vlad had threatened him and Dash with blackmail concerning that time they had been caught with drugs. It was Dash's fault, and they had been drunk anyway at the party, but they had all been caught, the entire football team, by the cops. Vlad had somehow made the police report disappear through his connections to the Amity Park police chief, but the threat of him pulling the plug ensured that Kwan and Dash turned a blind eye to Danny's complaints. Besides, Vlad paid well over minimum wage for them to cut his expansive lawn and run errands, which usually ended up chasing after Danny when he ran off.

"You know, maybe you should just cooperate for once, you know, just do what you're told. That's I stay out of trouble with my parents"

Danny remained silent.

"Fine, be that way"

Dash might have rebuked the bratty behavior but Kwan didn't bother. It did bother him that the legal guardianship of Danny Fenton was a well-known billionaire and Danny really did get whatever he asked for with a few exceptions; permission to make his own decisions and go to places that he chose to go. That, apparently, was too much to ask for. However, what did Kwan care? He didn't know the kid, just had to get after him. One thing was for sure, Vlad had a lot of power; Danny had never once managed to escape the hundreds of acres that were owned by Vlad, nor had he been ever able to remove the very expensive GPS tag that he wore on his wrist, now covered in dirt.

They turned the corner and drove onto the main road leading to the estate; a well pruned avenue of hedges around a brick road. At the end, in the distance, was the castle like home of Vlad Masters and his legal son, Danny Fenton, ignited by the afternoon sun in golden hues that seemed to literally testify to the tremendous wealth possessed by the resident within.

Kwan tensed, trying to imagine what he would say to the distinguished billionaire when he reported why Danny had a black eye, torn clothes, scratches on his arms and residual blood from a nose bleed. Danny only put down his head and fought back tears, trying to recall the years as a sixth grader when he had once lived with his real parents.


End file.
